112 TUEDID^E. 



fine twigs or roots wound round and round, rather neatly inter- 

 mingled with a few tendrils of creepers and more or less entirely 

 coated externally with moss and selaginella, and in sorae cases 

 with a few dry leaves also incorporated in the lower surface. All 

 contained two or three eggs, and were placed on branches of large 

 trees at heights of fronTlO to 20 feet from the ground. In one, 

 there is a lining at the bottom of the cavity composed of the old 

 man's beard lichen firmly matted together. The nests vary in size 

 from 5 to 7 inches in diameter and 2 to 3 inches in height, accord- 

 ing to the amount and extent of the mossy outer covering ; the 

 cavity may be about 3*5 inches in diameter and 1 to 2 in depth. 



Subfamily CINCLTN^E. 



709. Cinclus asiaticus, Swains. The Brown Dipper. 



Hydrohata asiatica (Swains,), Jei'd. B. Ind. i, p. 506 ; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. $ JE. no. 347. 



The Brown Dipper, or Water-Ouzel, breeds in all the lower 

 stream-traversed valleys of the Himalayas, from Darjeeling to 

 Cashmir, from almost the level of the plains up to about 6000 feet. 

 I cannot learn that they breed higher than this, though during the 

 summer they may be found at great elevations. 



Mr. W. T. Blanford correctly remarks : " This species ranges, 

 in the summer, as high as 12,000 feet at least, and 1 have a speci- 

 men shot at that elevation at Yeomatong in the Lachuug Valley. 

 I saw brown birds which I noted at the time as belonging to this 

 species up to 14,000 feet, and I believe they were correctly identi- 

 fied, but as I secured none, they may have been C. sordida. Towards 

 the end of October, I saw this Dipper in the great Eangit River, 

 not 1000 feet above the sea." 



This Dipper lays at very different periods, according perhaps to 

 season and elevation. I took a nest in an affluent of the iSutlej 

 above Kotegurh, at an elevation of something over 5000 feet, in 

 the first week of May. I took two nests in Mandi below Drung, 

 at an elevation of perhaps 3000 feet, on the 21st April. Captain 

 Cock took two nests on the 12th and 20th March near Dhurum- 

 sala, at an elevation of about 4000 feet ; but they lay earlier also, 

 as Captain Hutton wrote to me that "on 21st December we found 

 a pair employed in preparing a nest at Eajpore ; they had selected 

 a hole in a rock over which fell a rapid stream serving as a screen. 

 On the 4th of January visited the spot, and found the nest com- 

 pleted, but no eggs laid. On the 12th January again visited it 

 and found one egg only, but did not see its colour. On the 18th 

 again visited the spot and found three eggs, but did not dare to 

 take them out. A few days afterwards sent a man to take the 

 nest, and found that some rascal had carried off the eggs." 



